And it happens again at 22:40! :D

Dead beat is my favorite

❤😊

What differences are there in difficulty?

This version is a bit more forgiving and some of the bosses are easier.

damage increases depending on the stage rather than the enemy, in the US version you take more damage in later stages while the JP keeps it consistent and fucking fair like it should be

They made it harder because of video game rentals, renting video games in japan is illegal but in the US it was fine. If the game was too easy and the player would rent it and beat it in a weekend, the developers wouldn't get any profit.

A ton of little things that stack up into a much harder experience: 1) Rather than damage varying based on enemies, it increases per stage in the U.S. version. By the last three levels, everything takes 1/4 of your health; no exceptions. 2) Certain boss arenas are redone in the U.S. version to make the encounters much harder. The triple fight in stage 7 (mummies, cyclops, demon) probably reflects the biggest difference. The Japanese version offers two completely safe perches on either end of the stage. In the U.S. version, those are floating platforms, and the floor extends underneath them, allowing the mummies and cyclops to walk to both edges of the screen. You have to get on the ground with them to attack, and the mummies fire their bandages in sine waves rather than straight high and low, making them harder to dodge. The demon also fires three large fireballs rather than two small ones. 3) Alucard's bat form uses hearts more quickly in the U.S. version, making some sections harder to bypass on his route. Grant automatically throws daggers across the screen in the Japanese version, whereas his basic attack in the U.S. version is a short-distance stab, and he can acquire the dagger as a subweapon instead. 4) Certain enemies, such as bone pillars and axe knights, require more hits in the U.S. version. This makes a handful of sections more nerve-wracking. 5) If you die at Dracula in the Japanese version, you start out just outside his room. The laser beams in his final form are also much shorter, and can't shoot upward. If you die at Dracula in the U.S. version, you start out before the pendulum, room, so there's a bit of extra mental effort in getting back to Drac at full health. The U.S. version also adds bats to the pendulum room (which seems comically cruel until you get their pattern down). As a trade-off, you get an opportunity to grab an Axe before each Dracula fight in the U.S. version, which is a very helpful subweapon for his final form, but all in all, I'd say the changes make for a substantially harder final boss outside of Japan. The U.S. version is definitely doable (I've beaten it with every character), but it's not messing around. Basically anything you see in the Japanese version that seems like a gimme is changed for the international release, becoming either slightly difficult or comically hard. I guess as another trade-off, the U.S. version features a ten-life code, which could help you learn certain stages with less frustration before going for a proper three-life run.

I want to see you do it in 31:45 in front of a live audience before you talk crap about the runners. Most people need a minimum of 3 hours to finish Castlevania 3.

ijustwrestledabear give me the audience and I'll show ya

F'real. Just being able to do the Alucard route in a half-hour without a game-over, in front of an audience, is a Herculean feat of muscle-memory and memorization. And this is definitely the kind of game where, as you saw here, one small timing mistake (as in, not moving half a second earlier) can lead to minutes of extra time as you get back and rebuild your power-ups.